President Biden has signed a law to ban Chinese-owned TikTok unless it is sold within a year.
It is the most serious threat yet to the video-streaming app’s future in the U.S., intensifying America’s tech war with China.
The law gives TikTok nine months to find a buyer, with the option of a three-month extension if a potential acquisition is in play.
In March, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would give TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest its assets in the country or face a ban, but some lawmakers said the time was too short.
The short video app is used by about 170 million Americans.
NPR reports that the measure signed by Biden on Wednesday was tucked in a bill providing foreign aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. The law stipulates that ByteDance must sell its stake in TikTok in 12 months under the threat of being shut down.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan had said that the aim was to end Chinese ownership of TikTok and not to ban the app.
“Do we want TikTok, as a platform, to be owned by an American company or owned by China? Do we want the data from TikTok – children’s data, adults’ data – to be going, to be staying here in America or going to China?” he said.
Chinese tech giant ByteDance, in 2017, purchased the popular karaoke app Musical.ly and relaunched the service as TikTok. Since then, the app has been under the microscope of national security officials in Washington fearing possible influence by the Chinese government.
Despite concerns in Washington, TikTok has soared. It has become the trendsetter in the world of short-form video and is used by 170 million Americans, which is about half of the country. It is where one-third of young people get their news, according to Pew Research Center.
It marks the first time the U.S. has passed a law that could trigger the ban of a social media platform, something that has been condemned by civil liberties groups and Constitutional scholars.
TikTok has vowed to take the Biden administration to court, claiming the law would suppress the free speech of millions of Americans.
